COME IN FROM THE COLD – THE RETURN OF JONI MITCHELL
BBC Radio 2 Documentaries.
Is there anyone in popular music quite like Joni Mitchell? Why is she so special and what made her that way?
Come in from the Cold, a two part interview profile currently running on BBC Radio 2 has some answers.
You will discover some interesting technical information. What comes first, words or music? Mitchell says she does it the hard way, she likes puzzles.
The two hour production of which only the first part has played so far, probably has about a half hour or 45 minutes of straight interview material. The rest is filled out with sound clips from her recordings. Did she say that the new CD is album number 23? That is not a surprise when we look at what has so far been a 40+ year career. She even took the last ten years off to work on visual art.
Fortunately we have a figure of the current moment here. She is not one of these people who is looking back to the glory days of the past, to how cool her gen, gen, generation was. She is clearly and individual which is what one would expect given the evidence of the unique popular songs and recordings she has produced.
Of course the whole point of the exercise is to promote the upcoming CD of new material which is called Shine. Yet it is worth a listen for even those with a passing interest in this major figure in 20th Century popular and perhaps what we could call art song.
Part one should be available to "Listen Again" through Monday March 26, 2007. Part two appears on Tuesday March 27 and will be available for streaming for a week after that.
